Beware! Ginebrafx is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
Except for the picture of the world-renown tennis player Roger Federer which for some unknown reasons is on its interface, the website of Ginebrafx is like a carbon copy of another fraudulent broker. Below are the reasons why you shouldn’t trade with Ginebrafx.
Ginebrafx Regulation and safety of funds
The address that is given on the company’s website is in Switzerland, so we checked to register of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). From the image below, you can see that FINMA has issued a warning that this broker is not registered and therefore, any investment services offered by the company are illegal.
Swiss brokers are some of the most rigidly regulated and to be licensed by FINMA they have to provide an operational capital of at least 20,000,000 Swiss Francs which is an impressive amount of money. Clients’ funds are protected against bankruptcy by up to 100,000 Swiss Francs which gives additional security to traders.
If you are looking for a legit and reliable broker, we also suggest that you research the trading conditions in the EU and the UK which are very favourable for traders. EU and UK forex brokers are also strictly regulated and they must have an initial capital of no less than 730,000 EUR, provide negative balance protection, report regularly transactions for the sake of transparency, keep low leverage, etc. In addition to that, licensed brokers must participate and deduct funds towards a local compensation scheme or fund which will reimburse clients up to a certain amount in case of bankruptcy. For the UK, the compensation can go up to 85,000 GBP per client if the broker deducts funds towards the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme. EU brokers participate in a local investor compensation fund which provides up to 20,000 EUR per client if the broker becomes insolvent.
Ginebrafx Trading software
The trading products offered by Ginebrafx consist of stocks, cryptocurrencies, forex, CFDs and binary options. The trading software consists of a basic web trader with limited functionalities and a third-party chart developed by TradingView (image below). On the left-hand side are located the trading products with an unrealistically high return and on the right are the trading options. What the trader needs to do is select the trading product, predict the price movement in a given time frame and make a choice to buy or sell. Some regulatory bodies that have banned trade with binary options from their jurisdictions compare this type of trade with gambling. Ans, in our opinion, they are right because as you can see from this basic platform, traders cannot do any informed predictions.
From the information on the company’s interface, it is easy to see that the spread starts from 1.0 pips. However, there is no information how wide it can go. Just to let you know, any spread that is wider than the industry average of 1.5 pips is not beneficial for traders as the cost of transactions will be too high and they won’t be able to achieve a sustainable profit.
Another worrisome fact is that the leverage is sky-high – 1:1000. On the surface, it may seem like the high leverage increases the potential of making a big win. What happens in reality, though, is quite different having in mind that around 70% of traders lose in transactions. Unfortunately, the scope of financial loss is such cases will be amplified by the high leverage. It is not by chance that ESMA regulations impose a cap on leverage which is 1:30 for forex currencies in order to reduce the risks of financial loss.
It is good to know that legit brokers normally offer trading software of good quality and around 80% of the brokers prefer either the MetaTrader 4 or the MetaTrader 5 trading platforms. This is not surprising as both platforms offer a lot of advantages, such as an auto trading option, trading signals, code base with customs scripts, VPS, an app market, a financial calendar, etc. One of the key features for these platforms is the charting options that contain a lot of charts, time frames, colours and even the option of creating customised templates. Last but not least, we must mention the array of technical analysis indicators which help traders predict the future direction of exchange rates and make a profit.
Ginebrafx Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
On the website of Ginebrafx, there is no information what trading accounts are offered to the clients. The minimum initial deposit, as it appears when you click the deposit button on the web trader, is $250.
There is a variety of payment methods that clients can use, including credit card, bank wire, Skrill, Neteller, Bitcoin, Payeer, WebMoney and PerfectMoney.
We found out that the minimum withdrawal amount is $500. If the client wants to withdraw $1,000 or over, then the broker has the right to decide the electronic method through which to credit the amount, as well as the currency in which the transaction will be made and the financial destination where the transaction will take place.
Similarly to other fraudulent brokers, this one too offers bonuses to its clients. First of all, we must tell you that legit brokers are banned from offering bonuses or other incentives to their clients. Secondly, you should be fully aware that bonuses are funds belonging to the broker, not the client and usually they are subjected to some hard to meet conditions. In this case, to be eligible to withdraw his/her funds, the client must execute a trading volume that is equal to 30 times the amount of the bonus. To meet such conditions will be very challenging even for experienced traders. We strongly advise you against trading with a broker that offers bonuses for the safety of your precious funds.
How does scam work?
No one wants to be duped by scammers, but it happens all the time because they know how to manipulate people. As they say in one popular song “sweet dreams are made of this” and this is what scammers rely on – creating in people’s mind a sweet dream of being rich! Scams usually start by unsolicited telephone calls or ads on the Internet or social media promising quick and easy profit. It is easy to fall into scammers’ trap and once you make a deposit, you are done for! Scammers won’t let you get away easily even if you realise that you are being scammed. They will try to delay you when you try to withdraw your funds by asking you to provide this document or fill out this form, etc., in order to make you miss the deadline when you can file for a chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
You need to act very quickly. First of all, if you have made a deposit using a credit card, you must immediately file for a chargeback. Fortunately, VISA and MasterCard allow for 540 day period in which you can file for a chargeback. This is the good news. The bad news is that if you have made a deposit using bank wire or Bitcoin, the chances of you getting your funds back are nil!
Another thing you can do is cancel your credit card if the scammers have your CVV code. Check your PC and erase the software that gives scammers access to your personal data.
Be careful, because even doing all that we recommended, your unfortunate experience with scammers may not be over. There are so-called recovery agents. One of those may approach you offering to recover your funds for a fee. Do not trust them and always check the legitimacy of the recovery agent and the agency.
Also, be aware that some “victims” of scam may post comments after the review, saying how they lost money and how a recovery agent helped them retrieve their funds. They will even put the contact info for this so-called recovery agent. Do not trust them either as it is another case of scam!
